Released Hamas detainees describe starvation, squalor, and terror

 Released Hamas detainees describe starvation, squalor, and terror

Simplified bed benches in airless, "suffocating" chambers. either not eating at all or very little. A kidnapped by Hamas was made to view a video of the October 7 massacre.

Testimonies from those freed from Gaza, often via family members, describe weeks of squalor, uncertainty, and terror.

Ruti Munder, 78, one of the hostages, claimed to have heard on the guards' radio that her son had been slain in Israel.

Deborah Cohen said that recordings showing Hamas attacks in southern Israel were made her 12-year-old nephew view.

Under the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, more than 60 of the approximately 240 individuals who were held captive by Hamas have been released.

Though few have spoken openly about their experiences, many who have gone through a captivity that left them with severe psychological and physical wounds have done so either directly or via family members.

Speaking with the French television station BFM, Ms. Cohen detailed the circumstances under which her nephew Eitan Yahalomi, 12, spent his 52-day ordeal as a captive.

He said, "Everyone in Gaza beat him when he got there. He is twelve years old." Any crying youngster would be "threatened with rifles," he said.

Eaton allegedly informed Ms. Cohen that "Hamas forced him to watch horrifying videos" of the October 7 assaults, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 people.

Deborah Cohen told BFMTV, "We were very happy yesterday (when Eaton was released), but now that I find out, I'm worried." It is inconceivable what this is. I'm not sure who is capable of doing it.

"I hoped Eton would get good treatment. Obviously not. "Those folks are evil creatures."

Who are the captives who were freed?

Accounts of Israelis taken prisoner by Hamas

The crucial next stage of the conflict will start when this ceasefire expires.

According to the Times of Israel, Ohad, Eitan's father, was shot during the battle, suffering from injuries, and is now detained in Gaza.

Relatives of other captives have said that they were kept in cramped subterranean corridors and dark chambers without power.

Their guards kept a close eye on them, and if they attempted to speak to each other in private, they were told not to.

Along with her daughter Karen, 54, and her nine-year-old grandson Ohad Munder-Zichry, Ruthie Munder, 78, were let free on Friday.

She said that her kidnappers had made her group sleep in a "suffocating" area with minimal natural light on mattresses on benches.

She was fortunate to get a sheet; many others, including small boys and girls, did not.

"We wrapped blankets over us. We wanted the boys to be close to us, so they slept on the ground underneath seats," he said to Israel's Channel 13.

Furthermore, it seems that Hamas tore families apart, keeping many people in the dark about what happened to their loved ones on October 7.

A relative is heard in the footage that Mrs. Munder's family released claiming that her 78-year-old husband Avraham is still being kept captive. In response, Karen Munder says, "So he wasn't murdered."

Mrs. Munder describes how she found out that Hamas had murdered her son Roy on the Nir Oz kibbutz while she was being held captive over the radio.

Food was not uniform. The 78-year-old lady said that she used to get tea and chicken and rice twice a day in the past.

He said, "We were fine," but he also mentioned how their circumstances quickly altered since "the economic situation was not good and people were hungry."

Merav Raviv, another cousin, told how Mrs. Munder and her daughter had dropped roughly 7 kg (15 lb).

Others have described a paltry, diminishing diet consisting mostly of watery bread, canned hummus, and salty cheese; at last, some captives have reported receiving just two pieces of bread each day.

Many of the rescued youngsters, according to those engaged in their care, are experiencing the negative impacts of psychological stress.

The two liberated girls were instructed to keep their voices down by their captors for many weeks, but according to a Kibbutz Beeri resident, they were still speaking in whispers.

Emily Hand, an Irish-Israeli child of nine years old, was freed on Sunday. Her father, Thomas Hand, claimed his daughter now weeps herself to sleep at night.

According to him, "she is coming out slowly, little by little," to US media.

"The most startling and unsettling thing about meeting her was that she was just whispering; you couldn't hear her," he said. I had to press my ear on her mouth."

"He was instructed not to make any noise."

Following her release on Sunday, Elma Avraham, 84, was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Beersheba where she was listed as being in "critical and life-threatening" condition.

Tali Amano, her daughter, said that Hamas had held her mother in appalling circumstances despite the fact that she already had many major medical issues.

He said that essential daily prescriptions were withheld to him for over 50 days, and that "my mother arrived just hours before we lost him."

The Forum of Hostages and Disappearing Families' chief medical affairs officer, Hagai Levin, said that Mrs. Avraham was detained "for 52 days... in conditions that no human being should be kept in... without human dignity".

Prisoner Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, who was freed on October 23 a few weeks before, said that she was suffering through the worst of it at the time.

The grandmother and peace campaigner was pushed into a "spider web" of tunnels under Gaza by Hamas after being kidnapped on a motorcycle and tortured with sticks.

However, she also notes that the captives are "treated well," with mattresses on the ground and hygienic sleeping quarters.

"They made sure we didn't fall ill and had a doctor visit us every two or three days," stated the man.